Support device for garment hangers



Jan. 13, 1959 L. c. FRIEND 2,868,389

SUPPORT DEVICE FOR GARMENT HANGERS Filed Aug. 12, 1955 INVENTOR. L/A/DSA) C. FZ/EA/D BY ATTUZ/VEYS 2,868,389 SUPPORT DEVICE FOR GARMENT HANGERS Lindsay C Friend, Essex, Md. Application August 12,-.1955, Serial N 0. 528,023

1 Claim. (Cl; 211-123) This invention relates to a support-devicefor. garment hangers, and more particularly has reference to a sleeve-like, circumferentially grooved article of manufacture, adapted to be fitted over and be slidable along the length of a conventional clothes bar, and further adapted to support, at uniformly spaced locations along the length of the bar, conventional garment hangers.

It is well known that conventional garment hangers, particularly the most usual type of wire hangers, have an annoying characteristic, in that adjacent hangers tend to become entangled with one another. As a result, when one attempts to remove a garment hanger from the clothes bar, it is found, on many occasions, that the hanger that is to be removed is entangled with adjacent hangers, the hangers being diflicult to separate from one another and hence causing considerable inconvenience and annoyance.

The present invention has as its main object the elimination of the difliculties which have heretofore persisted, through the use of a plurality of identically formed, abutting garment hanger support sleeves, slidably adjustable along the clothes bar and so designed as to uniformly space the several hangers along the length of the clothes bar, with the spacing being such that the hangers will not tangle with one another under ordinary circumstances.

Another object of importance is to provide a garment hanger support sleeve as stated which can be manufactured at a minimum of cost, from readily molded plastic material or the like.

Another object is to provide a support sleeve as described which can be mounted upon a conventional clothes bar, with a minimum amount of difficulty.

Still another object is to provide a garment hanger support device of the type referred to in which the supported hanger can be any one of various conventional hangers now in use, the construction of the device being such as to eliminate completely the necessity modification or redesign of the hangers.

Still another object of importance is to provide a garment hanger support device of the type referred to which will be attractive when in use, will protectively enclose the clothes rod, and will be so designed as to be freely adjustable, either independently of adjacent similar support devices or together with said adjacent devices, along the length of the clothes bar to provide an open space adjacent the hanger to be removed.

Other objects Will appear from the following description, the claim appended thereto, and from the annexed drawing, inwhich like reference characters designate like parts throughout the several views, and wherein:

Figure 1 is a side elevational view showing a conventional clothes bar equipped with a plurality of support devices formed according to the present invention, said devices being shown in supporting position in respect to a plurality of garment hangers;

Figure 2 is a transverse sectional view, on an enlarged scale, on line 2-2 of Figure 1;

- United States Patent Figure 3 is-a. greatly enlarged longitudinal? sectional view on line 33 of Figure l; and

Figure 4 is a transverse sectional view. on the;same

scale as Figure 3, taken on line 44 ofFigure 3.

The reference numerals 10,12. respectively designate wall surfaces.

and being of the twisted wire. type .in the. illustratedriere ample, although aswill presently appeanthe invention" can be readily used to advantage withuany of various: other garment hangersof conventional, design;v

At 18 there has. been generally; designatedthmdevicef constituting the present. invention, and as shown in-Fig ure 3, each of these devices includes an elongated sleeve 29, having a pair of continuous, circumferential grooves 22 each of which is of semicircular cross section: The grooves 22. are spaced inwardly from the opposite eX- tremities of the sleeve 20 a distance such that the distance between either groove 22 and the adjacent end of the sleeve will be half the distance between the two grooves. In other words, when a pair of like devices 18 are disposed in end-abutting relation, the difference between adjacent grooves 22 of the respective, abutting devices will be equal to the distance between the grooves 22 of either one of the devices. In this way, a uniform spacing of the grooves 22 along the length of the clothes bar is achieved, so long as the several devices are retained in abutting relation. This provides for a corresponding, uniform spacing of the garment hangers 16 from one another.

The sleeve 20 is formed with a continuous, constant diameter axial bore 24, of a diameter closely approximating that of the clothes bar 14, the sleeve being nevertheless freely slidable along the length of the clothes bar.

In use of the device, a plurality of like devices 18 would be associated with a single clothes bar as shown in Figure 1. However, they would not be in such number as to completely enclose the clothes bar from end to endof the bar, since this would unduly restrict axial movement of the several devices. Instead, an open space is left upon the clothes bar, as shown in Figure 1, and this permits the several sleeves to be freely adjusted back and forth along the face of the clothes bar, either individually or in groups, to provide ready access to any particular hanger, or to any particular groove 22 on which it is desired to support a hanger.

The grooves are of such depth that when the hooks of the hangers are engaged therein in the manner shown in Figure 2, the hangers will be securely held against movement longitudinally of the clothes bar. As a result, the hangers are all spacedrapart a distance such that they will not tangle With one another and will not cause the supported garment to be wrinkled or pressed by contact with adjacent garments. Instead, the garments will all be supported in properly spaced relation, and there will be no entanglement of the hangers. Yet, free access to any garment is assured by the freely slidable movement of the several devices 18 along the lines of the clothes bar.

It will be understood that in some instances, the clothes bar might not be removable. In this event, the sleeve 18 of the device might be split longitudinally to impart to it the characteristics of a split ring, thus permitting installation of the device without removal of the clothes rod.

It is believed apparant that the invention is not necessarily confined to the specific use or uses thereof described above, since it may be utilized for any purpose Patented .Jan.,.13, 19.59

, 3 to which it may be suited. Nor is the invention to be necessarily limited to the specific construction illustrated and described, since such construction is only intended to be illustrative of the principles, it being considered that the invention comprehends any minor change in construction that may be permitted within the scope of the appended claim.

What is claimed is:

A'support device for garment hangers of the type having wire suspension hooks, said device including an elongated, straight clothes bar for extension horizontally within an enclosure in which a plurality of garments are to be suspended from the support device; and a plurality of like sleeve elements freely slidable upon and receiving said bar, the several elements having squarely cut-ofi ends with the end surfaces of each element lying in planes perpendicular to the length of the bar, each sleeve element being formed at intervals spaced longitudinally thereof with external, circumferential grooves, each of said grooves having a narrow, semicircular crosssection such that a wire heck of a garment hanger will engage snugly therein, there being a'pair of grooves on each element, the distance between the grooves of said pair being twice the distance between each groove and the adjacent extremity of the element, said grooves being spaced widely from each other and from the ends of the element adjacent the respective grooves, to an ex- References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS' 162,845 McDonald May 7, 1875 362,124 Thompson May 3, 1887 790,343 Channon May 23, 1905 1,256,849 1918 Vaudreuil Feb. 19,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE. OF CORRECTION Patent No. 2,868,389 I January 13, 1959 I I Lindsay C Friend I It, is hereby certified that error appears in the above numbered patent requiring correction and that the said Letters Patent should read as cor-- rected below.

I In the grant, line 3, address of inventor, for "Essex, Maryland,"

read Baltimore, Maryland, in the heading to the printed specification,

line 3, for "Essex, Md. read Baltimore, Md.

Signed and sealed this 23rd day of June 1959.

(SEAL) KARL H. AXL N i I E ROBERT C. WATSON Attesting Officer Conmissioner of Patents 

